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Author
Topic: Dr. Yong Kang - any news? (Read 34562 times)

Researcher of the Month - November 1, 2007________________________________________Dr. Yong Kang

University of Western Ontario

A Two-Decade Quest to End Aids “This vaccine has the potential of saving millions of lives,” says Yong Kang, a professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at The University of Western Ontario. It’s always wise to have realistic expectations, but Kang hopes he is closer to finding a cure for HIV/AIDS – and he’s already much nearer to succeeding than most have ever been. The AIDS pandemic has killed more than 25 million people and infected 40 million more since the virus was first discovered in 1981, and experts say a viable vaccine is the best hope of ending the tragedy. Kang's tireless quest to develop a vaccine against HIV/AIDS has spanned nearly two decades and has just entered a new phase. "The results look encouraging, and we are now moving onto pre-clinical animal toxicology trials," he says. Kang's work has produced one of the few technologies to make it so far in a process where dozens of other potential vaccines have failed. His technology could not only produce antibodies against HIV, but also prime T-cells to destroy cells harboring the virus, essentially curing a patient with HIV infection. "We created a genetically modified HIV and recombinant human adenoviruses to develop a vaccine which can prevent HIV infection and clear HIV-infected cells. It can produce antibodies against HIV and educate one type of white blood cells to find infected cells and kill them," explains Kang. "We hope the vaccine will not only prevent HIV infection, but that it can be used as an immuno-therapeutic agent." With the help of Western’s Industry Liaison office, Kang licensed his inventions to Curocom, a publicly traded holding company in Korea. Curocom is sponsoring research in Kang's lab and recently opened a subsidiary office at Western’s Research Park to accelerate aspects of the commercialization process of the HIV vaccine program. Kang’s vaccine is currently being manufactured in a Maryland laboratory in anticipation of FDA approval to continue with Phase 1 and 2 human clinical trials. His vaccine could be available for therapeutic use within three years and for use as a preventive vaccine within the next six years().(IS TRUE?)Kang was educated in Korea and Denmark for his undergraduate[/b] studies, received his Ph.D. from McMaster University, D.Sc. from Carleton University and did his postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He taught at the University of Texas and the University of Ottawa, before coming to The University of Western Ontario as the Dean of Science in 1992.

For further information, please contact Dr. Yong Kang at 519-661-3226 or cykang@uwo.ca

It's another overly zealous press release designed to inflate the stock price of the companies named within. No researcher worth his salt would make such pronouncements before the approval of even Phase 1 trials in humans.

How many thimes have we heard this, and how many times have we been let down..but I like to keep an open mind, so we can only wait and see.

But I have to agree with this

Quote

Posted on: Today at 08:56:47 amPosted by: redhotmuslbear Insert QuoteIt's another overly zealous press release designed to inflate the stock price of the companies named within. No researcher worth his salt would make such pronouncements before the approval of even Phase 1 trials in humans

Had a look on the Western Ontario website....did find Dr Yang but nowhere did i find any mention of HIV Vaccine work, no news or anything...very strange..would of thought they would of said something about it....If anyone else can find any mention of it on their website, do let us all know.

How many thimes have we heard this, and how many times have we been let down..but I like to keep an open mind, so we can only wait and see.

But I have to agree with this

HugsJan

Annie as the Global Moderator Member I dont see how this kind of fatalistic negative hopeless post does any good and perhaps you could speak for yourself, as "I" not we, and why as someone who i am assuming is on haart, which was created by hard work of scientists are you not reverent and respectful of the very hard work of millions of underpaid researchers including this one

How many thimes have i heard this, and how many times have i been let down

this is great great progress being made

they are almost at a solution

there are 150 new meds in the pipeline according to the latest issue of poz mag or in trials

they are coming up, in trials, with new non nukes that dont cause the bad dreams and neuro effects

etc

we --- and perhaps i should say all of you who are on meds, because i am not on them yet, but i will if i get to 350 t cells

"we" should all be bowing down to science for keeping us alive

and

respect the hard work of researchers all over the world

i also disagree with the idea that companies post announcements to get the stock price up

they have to be extremely careful what and when they do any press release if they are a real companyand they deserve to have freedom of speech

I also agree. The one I've focused on is the Koronis trial. Even if it might be a "let down" in the end, it will serve a purpose to get me through yet another year... and then on to the next great hope. One of these days, one of them will actually come through. Look how long it took the integrase inhibitors to finally come to be... and look how potent Isentress seems to be. I'm also still waiting for the Ensoli vaccine trials to start again.

Biz, while I generally agree with what you are saying and am 100% a fan of scientific research, there is no denying that public companies are beholden to stock holders and are from time to time guilty of timing certain announcements in relation to stock price.

As for Ensoli - what the hell happened to that thing? From what I was reading on the 'old' forum, there were supposedly people who had stopped meds and continued to have undetectable vl. Yet I can't find anything about it now except references to law suits over who discovered what, ect, ect. What a dissapointment. At one point, there was an activist from Italy who posted here a few times to let us know what was happening over there, but I haven't heard from him in a while.

Well, it appears that they turned into something resembling an Italian soap opera with egos bruised and reputations tarnished when one of Ensoli's former cronies criticized her research. Where did this end up? In court.

So annoying. How about taking the money from the friggin lawsuits and putting it into trials? Are the trials actually going on? What about the people who already got the vaccine - surely someone must be following them. I still don't see any mention of any of that anywhere. What a waste.

Well according to the article linked by Jake the second phase did begin, and should take 2-3 years. If true, this could conceivably explain the lack of news, since no researcher will comment on a particular phase until the moment it ends and data analyzed. Fingers crossed, I guess.

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"Hope is my philosophy Just needs days in which to beLove of Life means hope for meBorn on a New Day" - John David

I've merged your new thread on the subject of Dr. Kang with the one you started on the same subject back in January. I also changed the thread's title so people can know at a glance what the thread is about. I would appreciate it if you'd make the subject of your thread clear in the title in future.

I'd also appreciate it if you would keep subjects in one thread, instead of starting new threads on subjects with an already existing thread. If you need help finding your thread when you come here, click on the "Show own posts" link under your name in the left-hand column of any forum page.

Please also read through the Welcome Thread so you can familiarize yourself with our Forum Posting Guidelines.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Guys, guys...am I missing something here? I'm as optimistic as the next person, most likely more so. The continuing advances in gene related therapies, monoclonal antibodies, etc, are very exciting. But this? I've read the press releases from Dr Kang and am left asking each and every time, "where's the beef?". To be nice, it sounds like a bunch of overhyped bs. Endless delays, no human trials, no peer review, and classic over promising / under delivering. Hmmm...

I have to admit, I've been watching this one from day one and they keep promising big things and then we hear nothing.. I thought it was further along also, but at least something is happening finally.

"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

(PhysOrg.com) November 12, 2008 -- The advance towards a vaccine for HIV/AIDS has taken another step closer to realization. A vaccine, developed by Dr. Chil-Yong Kang and his team at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at The University of Western Ontario, and licensed to Sumagen Canada Inc., has now been manufactured for use in trials - first, in toxicology trials using animal models and then in Phase 1 human clinical trials.

The vaccine has been manufactured at a bio-safety level 3 (BSL3) good manufacturing practice (GMP) facility in the United States.

“It has been very difficult to manufacture our genetically engineered HIV-1 experimental vaccine, because there are only a few BSL3 GMP contract manufacturing organizations (CMO) available in the world. For this reason, we welcome the Canadian Government’s plan to establish a BSL3 GMP facility in Canada for future manufacture of candidate HIV/AIDS vaccines. We have overcome a major hurdle in the development of our HIV/AIDS vaccine which is now ready for clinical trials,” said Dr. Dong Joon Kim, CEO of Sumagen.

The toxicology trials will get under way in a matter of days at a contract research organization (CRO) in the U.S., and results should be ready in approximately three months. The Phase 1 human clinical trials could begin in early spring at a number of trial sites in North America.

Kang's vaccine uses a killed whole HIV-1, much like Salk's killed whole poliovirus vaccine. The HIV-1 is genetically engineered in such a way that it is non-pathogenic and can be produced in large quantities. It is then purified, inactivated, and injected as a safe whole killed-virus vaccine.

While Phase 1 human clinical trials are most often conducted on healthy volunteers, in the case of this HIV/AIDS vaccine, it will be tested on individuals who are HIV-positive, but not yet symptomatic with AIDS.

More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981 and approximately 35 million people live with HIV infection world-wide today.

Sumagen Canada Inc. is a subsidiary of Curocom of Korea. The company is fully funding Dr. Kang’s continuing work on the HIV/AIDS vaccine development.

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"Hope is my philosophy Just needs days in which to beLove of Life means hope for meBorn on a New Day" - John David

After more than 20 years of labouring on an HIV/AIDS vaccine, Yong Kang’s research has reached an historic moment.

The professor in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry’s Department of Immunology & Microbiology is excited to see his vaccine enter an important testing phase this month in the United States.

If the initial toxicology tests prove successful, phase 1 human clinical trials could begin as early as three months from now at a number of sites in North America involving HIV positive individuals not yet symptomatic with AIDS.

“We have been working on this project for over 20 years,” says Kang.

“It has been a long, painful process, but we have gotten to this stage now, to test our vaccine, and see whether or not it can prevent HIV infections. Despite the tremendous amount of scientists working on this project, to date there has not been an effective vaccine.”

Kang and his team have invested years getting to this point; even so, they are certainly not alone in having created a vaccine that could potentially curb the deadly toll of this virus.

According to the HIV Vaccine Trial Network, there are 13 ongoing clinical trials, each representing years of work and countless dead ends, each approaching the potential solution in a different way, and each representing hope.

“Over the 20-year period there has been some ups and downs because of the failure of some of the well-known trials, therefore when we see that kind of failure we are discouraged. However our strategy is not the same as the others, so in some way we are encouraged to see whether our vaccine strategy will work better,” says Kang.

The genetically engineered vaccine, produced in large quantities in a Maryland lab, uses what he calls a killed whole HIV-1. The idea is the vaccine would prime T-cells to destroy cells harboring HIV, essentially curing a patient of the virus.

The vaccine is licensed to Sumagen Canada Inc, a subsidiary of Curocom of Korea, which is fully funding Kang’s work on the vaccine.

“I really hope for the success of our vaccine, not just for our company and The University of Western Ontario, but for all humankind,” says Dong Joon Kim, CEO of Sumagen.

Ted Hewitt, Western’s Vice-President (Research and International Relations), says after a long and intensive process, Kang has been issued one of only a very few HIV vaccine patents in the world.

“He has developed the technology to take it this far in a process where dozens of other potential vaccines, from much larger institutions globally have failed,” says Hewitt. “We are tremendously proud of Dr. Kang’s accomplishments to this point.”

Kang says while he sees the trials of fellow scientists worldwide fail, which he admits can be discouraging, he is confident his approach to the vaccine is a step others have not taken.

“It has been a tremendous effort to engineer or design a vaccine,” says Kang, adding “this type of research and development is so important for humankind to saving millions of lives.”

“The success of this vaccine will really help the millions and millions of people around the world affected by HIV/AIDS,” says Kang, noting the AIDS pandemic has killed 25 million people and infected 40 million more. “We can save lives around the world. This is a very important step.”

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"Hope is my philosophy Just needs days in which to beLove of Life means hope for meBorn on a New Day" - John David

J220, all due respect, but why do you keep posting essentially the same article for this untested, non peer reviewed, overly hyped, "cure"? As no doubt you've read, there has yet to be even the most preliminary phase 1 testing (let alone phases 2 & 3). There has been no peer review of any sort - only hyperbole and hype ("historic moment", "cure". "all humankind", etc). Does it not seem curious that the only people commenting on and hyping this "cure" and approach are those with a financial interest in it?

Evidently you've become emotionally invested in this quackery for some reason. Good luck with that.

J220, all due respect, but why do you keep posting essentially the same article for this untested, non peer reviewed, overly hyped, "cure"? As no doubt you've read, there has yet to be even the most preliminary phase 1 testing (let alone phases 2 & 3). There has been no peer review of any sort - only hyperbole and hype ("historic moment", "cure". "all humankind", etc). Does it not seem curious that the only people commenting on and hyping this "cure" and approach are those with a financial interest in it?

Evidently you've become emotionally invested in this quackery for some reason. Good luck with that.

The articles do contain new and relevant information, whether you agree or believe in it or not (and no one is asking you to, nor am I interested in your laughable assessment of my emotional landscape). You are under no obligation to read the articles, nor any of my posts, so feel free to ignore them.

« Last Edit: December 04, 2008, 10:42:18 AM by J220 »

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"Hope is my philosophy Just needs days in which to beLove of Life means hope for meBorn on a New Day" - John David

freewillie99 this world can be a better place. Try to contribute positively.

It is indeed a positive act to debunk false information and those who disseminate it. It is cruelty to stand by and watch people duped by frauds and follow fraudulent leads to nowhere.

Think of the energy wasted on unworkable methodology, and unscrupulous persons who profit on the desperate and gullible.

IMHO, I think those who spend their time following false leads to "cures" would have better luck petitioning their elected officials to allow the meds currently on the market to be distributed to those who need them, regardless of cost.

And to insist on first-tiered peer review is NOT an unreasonable request. It is the process by which scientific advancement occurs.

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"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

Oh, the drama! Can we just post info about the Kang vaccine here without all the high jinks? Sorry to be a prisspot but not all of us have all day to wade through endless minor offenses and comebacks just to see the latest info someone has found (thanks J220!).

Oh, the drama! Can we just post info about the Kang vaccine here without all the high jinks? Sorry to be a prisspot but not all of us have all day to wade through endless minor offenses and comebacks just to see the latest info someone has found (thanks J220!).

Sorry guys, just in a no-BS mood today

In other words, no mood to have a paradigm questioned? Seriously, debating on the ethics and merits of a scientist is hardly a "hijink."

Unless the search for scientific accuracy and veracity is not the perview of this forum.

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"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

First of all, everyone please watch the snarkiness and defensiveness. Neither are particularly helpful.

To be honest, it is difficult to have a "scientific dialogue" about this particular vaccine, because there has been so little data published in a journal or at a conference. One could argue the theoreticals, but that's about it at this point. If some people choose to place their faith in this vaccine and are later disappointed, then that's their right. We've all been there at some point.

Why don't we all hold our breath and our tempers until more data are published. I don't even need to see phase IIb studies, but I do want to see a full immunologic panel from subjects who are immunized with the vaccine. I also want to see what their plans are for dealing with the adenovirus vector. This is the same type of vaccine delivery device that may have led to problems in the STEP vaccine trial, and there are now safety concerns that must be contended with.

It is hard not to be skeptical, in light of so many promises and subsequent failures... I do know, however, that Dr. Kang is considered one of the leading virologists in Canada and his work his highly regarded. Let's hope he lives up to his reputation...

I have not checked this site for over a year. I thank everyone whohelped me during my HIV scare when I needed it the most.

It is interesting how little this study is being recognized. When I lived in Toronto, I met a person whose father is a colleague of Dr.Kang.

He told me the University was always very optimistic over Dr.Kang's research and believenow with the relationship with the Government of Canada and CURACOM thatthis vaccine is looking very positive and a true reality.

An HIV/AIDS vaccine developed at the University of Western Ontario has successfully completed toxicology tests on animals, opening the door to tests on humans. "We're one more step closer," said Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, who developed the vaccine with his team at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry over the past 20 years.Western holds the patent on the vaccine that it has licensed to Sumagen, a South Korean pharmaceutical company.Within the next few months, Sumagen is expected to apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to carry out toxicology tests on about 35 people. The tests will be done in the U.S."It won't take any more than six months," said Kang.

If the vaccine clears that hurdle, then it will move to what is called phase 2 clinical trials, testing the immune response in 600 to 700 volunteers.That will likely take a little more than a year, Kang said.The final phase, if no problems are discovered with the vaccine, will involve thousands of people and test if the vaccine can actually prevent infection by the virus.Unlike other HIV/AIDS vaccines that have been developed using fragments of the virus, Kang's uses whole killed virus, the same approach that is used for vaccines against influenza.The UWO scientists genetically engineered the virus used in the vaccine so it was no longer dangerous and could be produced in large quantities.John Miner is a Free Press health reporter.JOHN.MINER@SUNMEDIA.CA

When the clinical trials start, the efficacy of a therapeutic vaccine should be obvious fairly quickly. What will take time is the safety studies. The vaccine must be proven safe over time. Unfortunately there is no animal model hiv that reacts the same way hiv reacts in humans as the good doctor said. So going after latent cells will be the big issue for eradication.

A genetically engineered strain of HIV will allow scientists to study a human version of the disease in monkeys. Until now, AIDS researchers used monkeys infected with simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV. The virus is similar to ours, but it's far from a perfect research tool. "The lack of a primate model that utilizes HIV-1" — the strain that causes human AIDS — "is an impediment to research," write researchers led by Paul Bieniasz and Theodora Hatziioannou of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center.The new HIV strain, described Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could eventually make it easier to test drugs and vaccines for the incurable virus.

Though SIV and HIV wreak similar havoc on their hosts' immune systems, drugs affect them differently. While that makes SIV useful for studying how the disease progresses, it's less useful for studying potential treatments. It's impossible to quantify how much this has slowed the search for cures to a disease that kills nearly three million people every year, but it certainly hasn't helped.Carolyn Williamson, principal investigator of the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative, said that existing monkey models are "not ideal" for testing vaccines and drugs. She was not involved in the study."This model is a real step forward in HIV research," said Williamson. Monkey immune systems normally beat back HIV with the help of two cellular proteins that prevent retroviruses from replicating.Pigtail macaques, however, lack a gene variant that codes for one of those proteins. By swapping a key gene from SIV into HIV, the researchers produced a strain that evaded the other protein defense.When the macaques were infected with the engineered HIV, the virus developed slowly, at rates comparable to humans who keep the disease at bay for decades. "If your drug was developed for HIV-1, it doesn't necessarily work for monkey viruses," said Hatziioannou. "In this model, you know it's going to work the same way as in humans."Researchers will be able to study the mechanisms of so-called long-term non-progression — and that's just the start. The next step, said Bieniasz, is the development of an HIV strain that produces full-blown AIDS in the macaques, allowing researchers to test treatments for that stage of the disease.

Of Mice and HIV Models2008 Septemberby Jeffrey Bouley Cell Harvard University Medical School Jackson Laboratory University of Massachusetts Email the author

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—The good news coming from a recent study published in the Aug. 22 issue of Cell is that small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivered directly to immune cells can suppress the human immunodeficiency virus in animal models of the disease. Perhaps the better news, using a long-view perspective, is researchers are finally zeroing in on making the animal models for HIV better—particularly in the challenging realm of making good HIV mouse models.

The authors of the paper, “T Cell-Specific siRNA Delivery Suppresses HIV-1 Infection in Humanized Mice,” noted that along with the enduring problem of finding an effective strategy for delivering siRNA to the proper site in real-life systems, they have been stymied in the past by a lack of appropriate HIV animal models.

“Animal models for HIV-1 have suffered from either the lack of a system that precisely mirrors human HIV infection or, in the case of primate models, scarcity of species, high cost, and the need to use the related but distinct simian virus for infection,” noted the authors.

Lead author Dr. Priti Kumar, an instructor and post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard University Medical School’s Immune Disease Institute and Department of Pediatrics, adds that to overcome the animal model problem, several labs have been working on immuno-deficient mice that can be transfused with human T-cells and/or stem cells. For her study, the researchers used a new mouse strain, developed by co-authors Dr. Leonard Shultz, a researcher at the Jackson Laboratory, and University of Massachusetts researcher Dr. Dale Greiner, that can be transplanted with human immune cells or human stem cells that subsequently generate a human immune system in the animals.

“The key advance we achieved is that for the first time, these mice develop a complete functional human immune system including robust development of the cell target of HIV, CD4 T cells,” Greiner explains. “Previous mouse models used for HIV failed to reproducibly develop CD4 T cells following hematopoietic stem cell engraftment.”

“We built on a lot of earlier work that had helped produce mice with deficiencies that allowed us to more closely humanize them and overcome the innate immune system, a much more ancient kind of immune system that had tended to thwart our ability to make models that accurately predict human responses,” Shultz says.

Earlier mouse models that lacked or had sharply deficient innate immune systems—though they were the gold standard for HIV and other research efforts for many years—still resisted engraftment, and the model that he and Greiner helped develop supports the higher level of engraftment that Kumar and her colleagues needed for the siRNA research.

More work is needed to get the mouse models perfected, Shultz and Greiner acknowledge, with Shultz calling humanized mice “a moving target that is always going to need improvement.”

“The major advances needed are development of immunodeficient mouse models expressing human HLA molecules to permit appropriate T cell development,” Greiner notes. “Expression of human species-specific soluble factors that are needed for robust human immune system development are also needed to enhance human immune system development in the immunodeficient mice further.”

As for the original point of Kumar’s research using the newer mouse model, her team demonstrated that they could thwart HIV in mice by delivering interfering RNAs to T-cells. By silencing three genes, the team protected these cells from much of the damage typically associated with HIV infection, a sign of hope that researchers might come up with effective siRNA-based HIV therapies for humans.

Because T-Cells are recalcitrant in the uptake of nucleic acids, Kumar and her team “coaxed” them to take up the molecules by attaching them to an antibody against a T-cell surface protein.

But even with a solution to that problem, they had to overcome rapid viral mutation. To reduce the problem, the researchers targeted three different sequences: the sequences coding for CCR5, a human T-cell surface protein used by HIV to enter the cells, and two well-conserved HIV proteins.

The antibody-siRNA cocktail they administered to treat immune-deficient mice containing HIV-negative human T-cells gave them dramatic results. The control mice and mice who were given other siRNAs lost T-cells as soon as ten days following HIV infection, while roughly 75 percent of the mice given the therapeutic siRNAs had T-cell profiles that were essentially like those of non-HIV mice. DDN